NAS4Free is the new brand name of the original FreeNAS code which was developed between 2005 and late 2011. It was released under the name NAS4Free on 22 March 2012.[2][3] On SourceForge it was elected “′Community Choice′ Project of the Month” twice, in August 2015 and March 2017, respectively.[4]

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NAS4Free is an embeddedopen source NAS software distribution based on the latest release of FreeBSD.[5][4] It developed from original FreeNAS 7 code and updated to work with the current latest FreeBSD releases.[2] However, "NAS4Free preserves FreeNAS’s original m0n0wall/PHP architecture and introduces experimental support for the ARM architecture."[6]

NAS4Free is installable on almost any boot media including LiveCD optionally with a small USB flash drive for config storage if necessary, both for x86-64 and x86-32 computer platforms up to version 10.3.[8] As of version 11.0, NAS4Free no longer supports x86-32, but version 10.3 is still getting updates.[9] NAS4Free can be installed on Compact Flash, USB flash drive, SSD, hard drive or other bootable devices, and supports advanced formatted drives using 4kb sectors. It can be booted from LiveCD or LiveUSB. The software distribution is currently distributed as in ISO image (.iso, ~370MB) or USB flash drive image (.img, ~320MB) format, and in source form.

A special small footprint embedded image is also available (.img, ~150MB).[9]
The preferred method is the embedded installation onto a USB stick, Compact Flash card (CF), or hard disc HDD/SSD, for which NAS4Free was designed. The NAS4Free OS will load into system memory, eliminating system writes to a drive. Flash devices are more energy efficient, and the updating process can be done by WebGUI in the browser, downloading and installing a new firmware image.

The FreeNAS 0.7 branch was end-of-life'd in late 2011 after the FreeNAS name was legally acquired by iXsystems, Inc. Starting with version 8.x, new iXsystems developers rewrote FreeNAS and legacy FreeNAS 0.7 was no longer available for download.

The legacy FreeNAS 0.7 code was unable to be developed any longer under the same name, and a name change was necessary. The founder of FreeNAS (Olivier Cochard-Labbé) donated the original FreeNAS source code to the NAS4Free project. With the support of the former developers, namely Daisuke Aoyama and Michael Zoon, it carries on the original FreeNAS code base. FreeNAS 8.x.y and up is a software fork of the original FreeNAS with a new rewritten code-base, continuing the old branded name.[2] In 2018, the project applied for the XigmaNAS trademark in order to protect the brand[11] prior to the release of v11.2.